Door holder



halfen u W. E INGHAM DOOR vHOLDER Filed March 27, 1929 WczZie/"f fag/20272 Feb. 16, 1932.

Patented Pelo. l5, i932 'tras WALTER E. INGHAM, OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIG-NOR TO THE STANLEY VORKS, OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, .A COBPORATTON OF CONNECTCUT DOOR HOLDER Application tiled March 27, 1929.` Serial No. 350,207.

This invention relates to door holders adapted to be secured to the door and having a member adapted to engage'the floor. It has been the practice to provide holders of this sort with floor engaging members in the form of fixed rubber tips or shoes in order that the holder may have a iirm purchase on the floor. Door holders thus equipped, while giving general satisfaction, are o pen to numerous objections in certain applicatlons vas,

for example, when applied to a d0or frequently used by persons who are 1n al hurry or who iind it necessary to quickly push or shove the door open.

For example, in hospitals, doctors and attendants in passing out of doorways must7 under the eXigencies of certain cases, push the door violently in an attempt to further open it. When this is done, the iiXed rubber tip, due t-o its purchase on the floor, does not permit tbe door to swing as easily as desired,'and such movement as is given to the door results in the tip chattering and jumping, so to speak, along the floor. Further, the tip scratches and mars the door. 0f course, the holder could be tripped or released, but this would take time which is valuable in an emergency. At least half the number of times the door is used, the holder is on the wrong side. Y

The aim of the present invention is to 'provide an improved door holder wherein the above and other objections and disadvanr tages, incident to the use of'door holders as d heretofore made, are eliminated.

More particularly, an aim of the invention is to provide a very simple, eective` and durable door holder with a rotatable, and preferably yielding, iioor engaging member or roller which is resiliently forced down against the floor so as to have a purchase thereon, the roller being frictionally held against free rotation so as to offer the desired resistance to free swinging movement of the door, and the roller being adapted to roll over the Hoor when sufficient pressure is applied to the .door without causing any undue in- Y convenience in the use of the door or causing chattering or noise and without marking V'of the iioor with which the roller is or marring the ioor with which the roller is engaged.

My improved door holder is very durable and has a long life of usefulness as there is no appreciable wea-r between the floor engaging roller and its bearing or bearings, and the roller may be held with sucient pressure against the iioor to obtain the desired results without causing excess distortion and rapid wear of the roller. The device is characterized by its simplicity in construction and arrangement and its economy in manufacture, the parts being relatively few in number and being'oapable of cheap manufacture and ready assembly.

A further aim of the invention is to provide an improved door holder wherein the rotatable iioor engaging member or roller fis frictionally held against free rotation on its bearing or ybearings without the use of springs (aside from the spring which urges the bolt downwardly), bolts o-r other equivalent means for urging the bearing surfaces into engagement or for ad] usting the amount of friction or for taking up wear between the "bearing surfaces, thus resulting in a more simplified and economical construction and avoiding any likelihood of the holder getting out of order.

Other objects will be in part obvious and part pointed out more in detail hereina ter.

The invention `accordingly consists in theV` features of construction, combination of elelmentsand arrangement of parts which will parts in section, the door being shown diagrammatically in edge view and a portion y engaged being shown in section;

Fig. 2 is a front view of the door holder; 3 is a transverse sectional view through the roller; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the roller and its bearings.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the holder is shown as having a casing formed of a base plate 10 and a face plate 11, the latter having a rectangular rib 12 which, together with the base plate, forms a hollow vertical barrel rectangular in cross section. Obviously, the casing may be of any suitable shape, that shown in the drawings being illustrated by way of exempliication only. f desired, the barrel may be of circular or other form and, instead of standing out from the door, as illustrated, it may be located within the compass of the door. The base plate has a slotl?) at the upper edge of which is an outwardly extending Engerl or wall 14. The numeral. 15 designates a bolt corresponding in cross section to and slidably fitting Within the barrel 12. The bolt may be in the form of a hollow tube provided with a bottom end wall 16. 1n order to hold the bolt within the casing before the latter is attached to the door, there may be fixed to the bolt a spring 17 having its upper end `turned outwardly so as to operate in the slot 18 and overhang the lower edge of that slot.r Positioned within the barrel and the bolt, and between the walls 14 and 16, is a spring 18 for resiliently holding the floor engaging roller in engagement with the floor while permitting the roller to accommodate itself to any unevenness or irregularities in the floor as it passes thereover. The lower end of the bolt is provided with a pair of depending arms 2O provided with vertical slots 21 which extend to the lower ends of the arms. The numeral 22 designates a. pin on which the floor engaging element is rotatably mounted. This pin has its ends fitting in the slots 21 and, in order to prevent the pin from rotating, it has flattened faces 23, the diametrical distance between which is substantially equal to the width of the slots 21.

n accordance with the present invention, the device is provided with a roller having a Hoor engaging member 30 preferably formed of yielding material, such. as rubber, and a hub or sleeve 31 preferably formed of metal. The hub may have, as illustrated, a circumferent-ial groove in its outer periphery in which the ring or floor engaging member 30 is seated, the periphery of the hub being preferably ronghened so as to prevent slippage between the hub and the ring .30 or, if desired, the ring may be cemented on the hub or otherwise held thereon. The roller is ro tatably supported on a pair ef bearing members' 82 mounted on the pin 22 at opposite ends of the hub. The interengaging bearing surfaces between the hub 31 and the bearing members 32 are so disposed as to be inclined to the axis about which the roller turns. In

l the Apresent illustrative disclosure, the ends surfaces 33, and the bearing portions 34 of the bearing members 32 are of complementary conical shape. The bearing surfaces are shown as disposed at an angle of 300 to the axis of the roller, but this may be varied as desired. Thus, it will be seen that the opposed faces of the bearing members are oppositely inclined, and the hub is wedged upwardly between the bearing members when the roller is forced against the iioor. The bearing members 32 may, of course, be formed 0f any suitable material, but they are preferably formed of wood which may be impregnated with a lubricant in order to provide so-called oilless bearings. rlhe outer faces of the bearing members are flat and are adapted to abut against the inside surfaces of the respective arms 20. By preference, the bearing members have a more or less close fit upon the pin 22. The internal diameter of the hub 31 is considerably larger than the diameter of the pin 22 so as to allow a clearance therebetween and thus prevent engagement of the hub against the pin in the event there should be wear between the hub and the bearing members 32.

The operation of my improved door holder will be readily understood from the foregoing description taken in connection with 'the accompanying drawings. The door holder is secured to a door adjacent the free edge thereof, as shown in Fig. 1, the door being diagrammatically shown and being designated. by the let-ter D. The spring 18 resiliently forces the bolt 15 downwardly so as to press the cylindrical floor engaging member 30 against the floor which is designated by the letter F. The roller will flatten out somewhat, as illustrated in Fig. 1, the extent of flattening depending upon the resiliency or softness of the roller and the pressure with. which the spring 18 forces the roller against the floor. This engagement of the roller against the floor will offer some resistance to the free rotation and, thus, substantially free swinging movement of the door, but, if this factor of resistance were alone relied upon, it would be necessary to force the roller down against the floor under such undue pressure as to result in rapid wear of the floor engaging member so that the arrangement would not be practical in actual use. The frictional engagement between the hub 31 and the bearing members 32 gives another factor of resistance which obviates the necessity of forcing the roller with undue pressure against the floor. Due to the force with which the roller is urged against the floor, the hub 31 is pressed upwardly against the bearing surfaces 34 and is more or less wedged therebetween so that there is that desired degree of friction between these bearing surfaces and the complementary surfaces of the hub added to the resistance between the roller and the ilo fioor to prevent free rotation of the roller, which means that the holder will maintain the door in any position of adjustment. VIn the practical embodiment of the invention disclosed in the accompanying drawings, the bearing` members 32 are not positively fixed against rotation and, during` the opera-tion of swinging the door, these bearing members may turn with respect to the arms 2O of the bolt, it being apparent, however, that, due to the interengaging tapered surfaces between the bearing members and the roller, the bearing members are forced out and into frictional engagement with the inner or opposed surfaces of the arms 20. There may be some creeping or rotary movement between the bearing members and the roller and between the bearing members and the arms of the bolt, but, in any event, the opposed friotional surfaces are urged into frictional engagement with one another while the spring 18 is urging the roller against the floor so as to retard free rotation of the roller due to the fact that the surfaces between the bearing members and the roller are inclined at an angle to the aXis of rotation of the roller. However, as the roller may, when suiicient force is applied to the door, turn upon its bearing, the door may move under suiificient pressure and, when one gives the door a push or shove in hurrying through the doorway, the door will move without unduly arring or impeding the user.

lt is important to observe that the frictional engagement between the hub 31 of the roller and the bearings 32, and between the bearings and the arms of the bolt, as the case may be, is partly instrumental in frictionally holding the roller against free rotation, and such frictional engagement is obtained without the use of springs or the like directly associated with the roller. `There is practically no wear between the bearing ,surfaces so that the device will have a very long life and, in fact. will last as long as the normal life of a door. Such slight wear as may occur does not in any way effect the efficiency of the device.

t is evident that my improved device may haveV various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. If desired, the bearing members may be positively held against rotation, and the interengaging surfaces between the hub of the roller and the bearing members 32 may be other than of conical shape. i

lt is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover allof the generic and specific fea-- tures of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which. as a matter of language might be D 7 b Y to fall therebetween.

l claim as my invention: l. A door holder of the character described having a roller adapted vto'engage the floor,

bearing means on which said roller is journalled, fsaid bearing meansv and roller having interengaging bearing surfacesdisposed "at an; angle to the a-Xis of rotation of the roller, and means for holding said roller against the floor.

2; A door holder of the character described having a roller adapted to engage the floor, means for rotatably supporting'said roller and including bearing members with which said roller is in frictional engagement, said bearing members having their bearing surfaces so disposed that the distance between the bearing surfaces decreases in the direction in which the roller is urged thereagainst whereby said roller is wedged between said bearing surfaces when the rolleris in engagement with the floor, and means for holding v the roller against the floor.

3. A door holder of the character described having a roller adapted to engage the floor, means for supporting said roller and including a pair of bearing membershaving oppositely tapered bearing surfaces for said roller, eind means for holding the roller against the oor.

4. A door holder of the character described having a roller provided with a yielding floor engaging portion, means for supporting said roller and including a pair of normally stationary bearing members having oppositely tapered bearing surfaces, said roller having at its opposite ends bearing surfaces tapered correspondingly to and adapted to engage the respective bearing surfaces of said bearing members, and means for holding the roller against the floor.

5. A door holder of the character described having a bolt, a pin non-rotatably carried thereby, bearing means carried lby said pin,

a roller journalled on said bearing means and adapted to engagey the floor, and means pressing on said bolt for resiliently holding the roller against the iioor, said bearing means and rollerv having interengagmg bearing surfaces disposed at an angle to the axis of rotan between said surfaces andrespectively engaging the latter, said lbearingmembers having surfaces with which said roller is in engagement and which surfaces are so disposed Vthat the distance ybetween them decreases in the direction in which the roller is urged thereagainst, and a springfbehind said bolt for urging said roller against the floor.

7. A door holder of the character described i having a verticallyl movable bolt provided with a pair of opposed surfaces, a spring behind said bolt, a pin carried by said bolt and bridging the space between said surfaces, a pair of opposed conical bearing members on said pin andi'espectively engaging said surfaces, and a roller about and engaging the conical portions of said bearing members and adapted to engage the floor.

WALTER E. INGHAM.. 

